Surgery and Surgeons

News about Surgery and Surgeons, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Sep. 3, 2016

Paul Mason of Massachusetts, who used to weight 980 pounds before he lost 650 pounds through gastric bypass surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, continues to struggle with aftermath of his obesity; problems he has had to confront include surgery to remove excess skin, arthritis in his knees and frequent infections. MORE

Aug. 28, 2016

Op-Ed article by surgeon Samer Attar explains why he volunteers for medical work in Aleppo, Syria; notes residents of city are in dire need of medical services and few doctors and nurses who remain desperately need help serving them. MORE

Aug. 9, 2016

The Upshot; some hospitals in California have cut prices for knee and hip replacement surgeries and other elective procedures in response to California Public Employees’ Retirement System, program that allows patients to pay difference for getting procedure done at higher-priced hospitals. MORE

Aug. 9, 2016

Interview with Luke Dittrich, whose book Patient H M: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets delves into brain surgeries conducted by his grandfather Dr William Scoville on mental patients in 1950s; book examines effects of one such surgery on famous mental patient Henry Molaison. MORE

Aug. 4, 2016

The Upshot; some surgeries considered to provide little benefit to patients continue to be performed and paid for by health insurance, primarily because no regulatory body has responsibility to rule on efficacy of surgical procedures; good example of such so-called useless surgery is spinal fusion surgery, which was long offered for chronic back paiin despite series of clinical trials proving it provided little benefit. MORE

Jul. 26, 2016

Growing use of new knee surgery to repair torn anterior cruciate ligament or ACL sparks debate among orthopedists regarding its merits; procedure, developed by Arthrex from research conducted by Dr Steven Claes and published in Journal of Anatomy in 2013, replaces anterolateral ligament or ALL to stabilize joint and prevent ACL re-injury; some medical experts doubt existence of ALL, while some claim surgery may cause long-term knee damage. MORE

Jun. 13, 2016

Side Street column; hip-hop musician Andre Brown, also known as Doctor Dre, suffers from Type 2 diabetes and is chronicling his journey through weight-loss surgery to promote awareness of disease. MORE

Apr. 10, 2016

Kwame Anthony Appiah The Ethicist column answers questions on whether to reveal identity of biological father to child, buying art, teachers' working conditions and whether to refuse to perform risky surgery on patient. MORE

Apr. 7, 2016

Doctors at King Abdullah Specialist Children's Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, successfully separate conjoined twins Fatima and Mishal Ghani from Pakistan, part of long-running program seeking to help poor families across world struggling with children joined from birth; program is little know because it rarely reports on its work in scientific journals, but it is largest of its kind in world. MORE

Feb. 8, 2016

Dr Urban Lendahl resigns as secretary general of Nobel Assembly, which awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; move is due to expectation that he will be involved in investigation of surgeon and regenerative medicine researcher Dr Paolo Macchiarini, who is under investigation due to deaths of two of three patients upon whom he operated. MORE

Jan. 3, 2016

Karl Ove Knausgaard article recounts experience of traveling to Albania to watch British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh perform awake craniotomy, surgical procedure he pioneered; says inspiration for request to observe surgery was Marsh's book Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery. MORE

Dec. 27, 2015

Natasha Singer Technophoria column examines innovations at the Josie Robertson Surgery Center, new $300 million outpatient facility founded by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City; notes facility's focus on patient data-gathering could lead to improved service, but also treads upon ethical grey area in which patients' privacy rights are not firmly established by law. MORE

Dec. 13, 2015

Profile of Kricket Jerna Nimmons, one of first low-income New Yorkers to undergo gender reassignment surgery paid for by Medicaid; Nimmons, who is black and was raised in rural South, has undergone long and fraught journey marked by discrimination, abuse and illness to arrive at pivotal moment; availability of procedure to Nimmons reflects changing attitudes in society and medical profession. MORE

Dec. 8, 2015

The Upshot; simple computer algorithms can help doctors, who often face overwhelming amounts of data, keep track of overwhelming amount of information they must process; computer analysis can improve diagnostic accuracy and enhance safety during medical and surgical procedures. MORE

Dec. 7, 2015

Surgeons at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine say they will perform penis transplant surgery for first time in United States within year; 1,367 US service members have suffered wounds to genitals in Iraq or Afghanistan from 2001 to 2013, and such injuries are generally cloaked in stigma and embarrassment; only two penis transplants have been reported worldwide in medical journals, only one of which was successful. MORE

Nov. 8, 2015

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column praises work of Nepali ophthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit, who has restored sight to more than 100,000 people blinded by cataracts in poor nations using highly successful microsurgery technique costing only $25 per patient; procedure, which he developed, is known as 'Nepal method' and taught in American medical schools; Ruit's technique brings hope to some 39 million people across globe who are blind, about half of them afflicted by cataracts. MORE

Oct. 27, 2015

Four people who developed infected from heater-cooler device used during open-heart surgery at WellSpan York Hospital in York, Pa, have died, although it is not yet clear whether infection was primary cause of the deaths. MORE

Oct. 22, 2015

Study published in The New England Journal of Medicine finds nonsurgical therapy alone for severe osteoarthritis is far less effective than knee replacement surgery in relieving pain and restoring function. MORE

Oct. 8, 2015

Tommy John surgery to repair elbow is becoming increasingly more common among MLB pitchers; surgery leaves distinctive scar that various depending on year surgery was performed and surgeon. MORE

Sep. 26, 2015

Op-Ed article by Mark G Shrime and John G Meara argues that it will be impossible for United Nations to achieve its 17 proposed sustainable development goals without addressing lack of access to safe, affordable and timely surgery across world; dispels misconceptions about cost of such endeavor and points out that creating reliable surgical infrastructure bolsters entire health systems. MORE

Aug. 27, 2015

Op-Ed article by cardiologist Lisa Rosenbaum submits one's personal fears and emotions surrounding medical treatment choices are often better guide than studies, which can prove inconclusive; describes case of two women who each chose a different strategy, either invasive surgery or wait-and-see approach, after learning they had early stage breast cancer; argues both decisions turned out to be right, and role of medical community is to help patients accurately assess their personal risk. MORE

Aug. 17, 2015

Surgical patients who listen to music — even while they are under general anesthesia — have less anxiety and need less pain medication during recovery than those who do not, a large review of studies has found. MORE

Jul. 22, 2015

Op-Ed article by Sandeep Jauhar asserts that policy of issuing report cards to surgeons has backfired; points to studies showing that best surgeons, many of who had incurred higher mortality rates because they took on most difficult cases, are choosing only to do safe and routine procedures in effort to avoid being penalized for bad results; suggests that report cards are classic example of well-intentioned policy having harmful effects. MORE

Jun. 22, 2015

Pioneering procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement presents new hope for growing number of elderly Americans who face grim prognosis of aortic valve disease; surgery involves inserting lining of cow's heart through catheter, avoiding dangers of open heart surgery; some skeptics warn that newly-approved procedure is being used too widely before evidence is in (Series: Mending Hearts). MORE

Jun. 17, 2015

Large study published in JAMA finds that prescribing antibiotics to treat appendicitis is safe alternative to appendectomy; findings raise questions about routine use of surgery to address condition; study excluded complicated cases of appendicitis, and some doctors suggest that surgery should not be abandoned as it is very safe and reliable. MORE

Apr. 28, 2015

Study published in journals Surgery and The Lancet Global Health reports that lack of surgeons and anesthetists in most poor and middle-income countries results in millions of deaths every year from treatable medical conditions. MORE

Apr. 23, 2015

Paul Mason, British man who once weighed 980 pounds but lost 650 pounds after gastric bypass surgery, is now weighed down by 100 pounds of loose skin; Lenox Hill Hospital plastic surgeon Dr Jennifer Capla, who read about Mason's plight and his inability to find a surgeon willing to perform the skin removal in England, has agreed to help him and waive her fees, as will the hospital itself. MORE

Mar. 9, 2015

People sometimes take Valium or Ativan to relieve anxiety before having surgery, but a new study suggests that these drugs have little beneficial effect and may even delay recovery. MORE

Mar. 3, 2015

Some medical professionals are critical of 30-day mortality rate standard adhered to in some states as measure of surgical success; detractors argue that standard, which grades hospitals on whether patients survive 30 days after surgery, discourages surgeons from performing procedures on some elderly patients who could benefit and consigns other to long stays in nursing homes or intensive care units. MORE

Feb. 26, 2015

Study in The New England Journal of Medicine says parents and doctors should weigh how urgently surgery is needed for children younger than three years; cites increasing evidence that general anesthesia may impair brain development in babies and young children. MORE

Feb. 25, 2015

A study of nearly 3,000 obese women found that weight-loss surgery lowered the risk for some pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes and miscarriage. MORE

Feb. 8, 2015

Examination of case in which OtisMed Corp illegally marketed and sold 18,000 of its OtisKnee surgical guides without Food and Drug Admin approval highlights how easily serious lapses can occur in the rapidly evolving world of medical devices; case, which resulted in an $80 million settlement, would likely not have been brought to light without key whistle-blower. MORE

Jan. 30, 2015

Some cardiologists are making millions of dollars from Medicare for performing controversial, and some say unnecessary, in-office procedures to relieve blocked arteries in the arms and legs; Advisory Board Company reports procedures to put stents in vessels outside heart rose almost 70 percent from 2005 to 2013 to 853,000. MORE

Jan. 27, 2015

Use of 3-D printed models is having dramatic effect on several areas of medicine, including surgery; such models allow surgeons to create physical models of body parts of patients they will operate on, improving both accuracy and communication; Dr John Meara of Boston Children's Hospital used 3-D printer to create skull model of Violet Pietrok, girl born with rare defect called Tessier facial cleft, before operating on her. MORE

Dec. 12, 2014

Profile of Dr Kathryn Ko, neurosurgeon at Kings County Hospital Center, and also an artist who specializes in painting anatomy of brain and cranium. MORE

Nov. 25, 2014

Sweden's Karolinska Institute is investigating complaints that surgeon Paolo Macchiarini carried out experimental implant operations without ethical approvals and misled medical journals about success of procedures; Macchiarini, who is considered pioneer in field of regenerative, denies claims. MORE

Nov. 25, 2014

Food and Drug Administration warns against use of laparoscopic power morcellators, devices used during uterine surgery that cuts tissue to be removed into pieces, arguing that it risks spreading cancerous tissue; does not take device off market or ban it outright, but critics complain that action does not go far enough. MORE

Nov. 14, 2014

Post-mortem examinations of several women who died after surgery at a government sterilization camp in central India suggest that tainted medications may be to blame, rather than unsanitary conditions or hasty surgeries; Dr R K Gupta, who performed majority of tubal ligation operations, was arrested on charges of culpable homicide. MORE

Oct. 20, 2014

A study found that robotic surgery for benign gynecologic procedures had a higher rate of complication than conventional surgery, and was more costly. MORE

Oct. 2, 2014

The Upshot; study in Annals of Surgery finds that parents who were asked to decide which form of surgery their child should undergo and told about the price difference tended to select the cheaper option regardless of their insurance or economic situation; offers compelling case for price transparency in helping reel in the nation's $2.8 trillion health care bill. MORE

Sep. 29, 2014

In a small study, researchers found that certain activity in patients’ immune systems correlated to different recovery times. MORE

Sep. 1, 2014

Middle-aged and older patients are unlikely to benefit in the long term from surgery to repair tears in the meniscus, pads of cartilage in the knee, a new review of studies has found. MORE

Aug. 29, 2014

Non-surgical treatments can reduce the pain or discomfort from a bunion and keep it from worsening. MORE

Aug. 23, 2014

Medical advances that have eliminated the need for millions of blood transfusions are wreaking havoc in the blood bank business, forcing unprecedented wave of mergers and job cutbacks; American Red Cross notes transfusions are down almost one-third over past five years, largely due to the rise of minimally invasive surgeries; industry revenue is falling, and decline could reach $1.5 billion by the end of 2014. MORE

Jul. 31, 2014

Statins, the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, may have a role in surgical wound healing, a new analysis suggests. MORE

Jul. 27, 2014

Peggy Orenstein Op-Ed article, noting spike in prophylactic removal of second breast after detection of cancerous cells in first, points to research showing that procedure is unlikely to decrease risk of death; notes that surgery, known as contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, or CPM, carries risks of its own; holds that physicians need to better understand how visceral reaction to cancer diagnosis can drive patients to choose wrong treatment. MORE

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Working at the Houston cardiology center he founded, Dr. Cooley, in 1969, implanted the first totally artificial heart. His mentor and partner, the renowned surgeon Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, felt betrayed.